Is it possible to get Java to ignore the "trust store" and just accept whatever SSL certificate it gets?

I am trying to write an SSL client that sends mail using the javax.mail API. The problem I am having is that the server request that I use SSL, but the server is also configured with a non-standard SSL certificate. The web pages I have found say that I need to install the certificate into the trust store. I don't want to do that (I don't have the necessary permissions.)

1. Is there a way to get Java to just ignore the certificate error and accept it?
2. Failing that, is there a way to have the trust store be local for my program, and not installed for the whole JVM?

Solution 1:

Working code ( in jdk1.6.0_23) for #1.

Imports

import javax.net.ssl.HttpsURLConnection;
import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;
import javax.net.ssl.TrustManager;
import javax.net.ssl.X509TrustManager;
import java.security.cert.X509Certificate;

The actual trust all TrustManager code.

TrustManager trm = new X509TrustManager() {
    public X509Certificate[] getAcceptedIssuers() {
        return null;
    }

    public void checkClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {

    }

    public void checkServerTrusted(X509Certificate[] certs, String authType) {
    }
};

SSLContext sc = SSLContext.getInstance("SSL");
sc.init(null, new TrustManager[] { trm }, null);
HttpsURLConnection.setDefaultSSLSocketFactory(sc.getSocketFactory());

Solution 2:

You need to create a fake TrustManager that accepts all certificates, and register it as a manager. Something like this:

public class MyManager implements com.sun.net.ssl.X509TrustManager {
  public boolean isClientTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain) { return true; }
  public boolean isHostTrusted(X509Certificate[] chain) { return true; }
  ...
}


com.sun.net.ssl.TrustManager[] managers =
  new com.sun.net.ssl.TrustManager[] {new MyManager()};

com.sun.net.ssl.SSLContext.getInstance("SSL").
       .init(null, managers, new SecureRandom());

Solution 3:

Try this (answer to question 2):

System.setProperty("javax.net.ssl.trustStore", "/path/to/truststore");

You can also specify this as an additional command line parameter:

java -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/path/to/truststore <remaining arguments>

On Fedora this could be the system wide java trust store in /etc/pki/java/cacerts

Solution 4:

Just add -Dtrust_all_cert=true to VM arguments. This argument tells java to ignore all certificate checks.